


Visualization Exercises

by raja815



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Comfort, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Married Couple, Massage, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:38:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raja815/pseuds/raja815
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim is stressed.  Spock cheers him up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Visualization Exercises

**Author's Note:**

> For a challenge with [colonel_bastard](http://archiveofourown.org/users/colonel_bastard), prompt "deadlines," on a 500 word limit. Link to her fic to follow~
> 
> Shameless movie-era married life space husbands fluff. Something we all need more of in our lives.

Jim sighs.

Spock looks up from his PADD to see Jim rubbing his temples. All evening Jim has worked on fleet reassignment files and Spock has noticed his increasing frustration through their bond. But this physical sign of distress is too much to ignore.

"Perhaps a break would be beneficial," he offers.

For a moment Jim doesn't answer.

"I haven't got time," he finally says, dejected and sour. "I’ve got to get this finished tonight."

"The human brain is programmed to detect and respond to change. In the same way skin eventually ceases registering the sensation of clothing, your mind delegates exponentially less attention to repetitive tasks. A short break will, in effect, reset your concentration, allowing you to finish sooner."

“If I get up I won’t come back,” Jim admits. “This is like pulling teeth.”

“A barbaric, antiquated practice,” Spock observes, rising to join Jim. “Nevertheless, there are methods of restoring mental clarity that do not require movement.”

“Let me guess; I’m in a meadow,” Jim mumbles, petulant.

“A meadow?”

“Visualization exercises,” Jim sighs. “A kind of personal meditation; you're supposed to imagine yourself somewhere peaceful. I’m always hearing about them from people telling me I need to relax more. That’s the most common one. ‘You’re in a meadow, blue skies, babbling brooks…’”

“You do not find such imagery calming?” Spock himself is intrigued.

“Extraneous. I’m not in a meadow; I’m at my desk, drowning in bureaucracy.”

“Negative,” Spock says, stroking gently over the knotted tension in Jim's shoulders. “You are in a meadow.”

Jim sighs, "oh, all right,” grumpy but resigned, as Spock begins to massage. “What’s in the meadow? Not a babbling brook, please.”

“Would flowers suffice?”

Despite himself, Jim chuckles. “Flowers. What color?”

“Blue,” Spock invents, Jim’s preferred shade. "Innumerable small, blue flowers." He opens Jim’s collar and slides one hand beneath the fabric, over his warm skin.

“Mmm. Are you there too?”

“Do you wish me to be?”

Jim rolls his head up, resting his cheek against Spock’s hand. “Of course.”

“Then that is where I am.”

Jim smiles, nuzzles against Spock’s knuckles. “Tell me about them.”

“About ‘them’?” The tension in Jim’s shoulders is ebbing away, as is the frustration in his mind, replaced by warm affection.

“The flowers. If we were really together in a meadow of flowers, you’d tell me all about them.”

“A species of saxicolous bromeliad. Their overlapping leaves are a mechanism for collecting rainfall.”   


Jim laughs, delighted, and kisses Spock's hand. “Wonderful. Tell me something else.”

“Your mind has sufficiently cleared,” Spock says, withdrawing his hands, “and it is time to return to your task.”

Jim gapes, blindsided, then laughs again. 

“Tease,” he scolds, affectionately.

“Perhaps,” Spock says. Then, as if by afterthought, “in addition to differential stimuli, the human brain also responds well to reward-based incentive.”

“Why, Mr. Spock. Is that a promise?”

“Merely scientific fact,” Spock responds, taking up his PADD again. Jim resumes working, so quickly that Spock estimates he will finish within the hour. Fascinating.


End file.
